At the Bird Park with the Ows

Last Saturday saw us at the Jurong Bird Park with the Ows :) Ian and Faith.

It was a bit of a last minute decision to meet up, partially cos i missed seeing Ian and Faith and also becos Ian has been wanting to see "baby justin". Decided that we should meet up so that the kids can have some fun :) and since Ian has been asking to go to the Bird Park, we decided to meet here. As we were driving there separately in the morning, it was threatening to rain! Luckily it didn't and the weather held up beautifully throughout our outing! Otherwise we would have to see very wet birds and that wouldn't have been very fun at all.

Here's a shot of the Little One with Ian and Faith. Was trying to get all three of them to focus on the camera but err.. as you can see, each was doing their own thing! Ian was watching the Birds of the Prey show whereas the other two were just, watching something :) Not sure if birds are just harder to focus on, since they are flying here and there, but the Little One wasn't as interested at the shows in the bird park as compared to the zoo.

There was another show that we went to - Birds and Buddies! This one is a bit cuter, with the birds performing tricks such as throwing ping pong balls through small basketball hoops and mascots dancing around.. the Little One showed a bit more interest in this one.. and here he is watching intently while the Big One goofs around :)

After about 3 hours at the place, it was time for lunch at the Bongo resturant. The only one! This is quite different to the zoo where there were lots of choices for meals. Didn't really think the food was very good, even compared to the zoo. But the kids had lots of fun :) think hamburgers, pasta and lemonade.. yummy!

The Little Ones were getting sleepy, especially Justin and Faith.. so after lunch, we went home.. Here's a shot of mummy and the Little One at the entrance of the Bird Park.. till we visit again!

His Auntie's Birthday

:) The month of August is filled with weekend celebrations for the Little One's birthday. Well, there is only one aunty but at least 3 celebration meals. Isn't she lucky?

Here are some of the pictures taken at the celebrations:


These 2 were taken at Chinese Swimming Club where we had a nice buffet meal. The Little One was having lots of fun pointing to the fishes in the pond. Love this black and white shot :) The Big One says he really looks like me.


The Little One is now old enough to get a present for his auntie :) This year he sent her flowers for her birthday.. with a special note from him!

Here's another one with us at Parkway.. He looks like he is trying very hard to pose for the camera! Its as if he is asking "am i hot or what!"

Happy Birthday Auntie!

PS: Can you imagine how busy we will be when it comes to October? its mummy, daddy and both his grandparent's birthday!

What's a Silly Face?

This is the silly face which he makes when you say "silly face" :) taught by Hi-5!

He has also started to make a "wink" but with both eyes.. he would wink and then smile to himself.. very CHEEKY!

Botantic Gardens

Second time we visited the Botantic Gardens this year..the first time was around New Year's with the Little One's cousin and grandparents. Decided to bring the Little One back there again, now that he can walk quite well on his own (i know, i know.. it has been quite a while since he can do that already..pls attribute the rest of the delay on laziness) and also we have been thinking of places to visit now that he has officially dropped his morning nap.

A bit on the morning nap bit - He has stopped taking his morning nap for a week now. it has been so so difficult to get him to nap, like having to pat him for 1 hour, that even sari gave up. And yes, sari has always been the most patient of all the adults at home. Given that she also started fasting this week for her new year, its also good that the boy "converted" to only 1 nap a day, but a much longer one.. around 2 plus hours.

Back to the Saturday.. since he no longer needs a nap, we decided to bring him out for some outdoor play, to get him to run around and exhaust all that bountiful energy! So off to the gardens we went :) blessed with good weather . First stop - koi pond at the entrance of the gardens.

The Little One was clearly excited about the fishes. He can now say the word "fish".. though it comes out more like "phish" and he would point to the fishes and go "phish" and even recognizes them in the storybooks that we read him. He wanted to go into the pool.. but stopped in time.

Now that he can walk quite well, he usually wants to walk on his own, with us just holding his hand. The Big One likes this picture cos he says it shows love :) The Little One has this habit of wanting to walk over the metal grills over the drains. Think that its probably becos of the sound it generates when he walks over it. So yes, even at the Botantic Gardens, we got dragged around in search of noisy drains.

While the others were walking their dogs, the Little One was walking his own dog :) The little plastic puppy!! He was dragging it around the park. So much for a pet! He doesn't say the word "dog" but instead makes the "woof" sound whenever he sees a doc.

We were lucky enough to spot the swans this time around. Didn't manage to catch any during our 1st visit. We were just sitting near the pond, next to this lovely lady.. minding our own business. Next think i know, the lady was offering some bread to the Little One to feed the swans and without any minute of hesitation, he reached out his hand and grabbed it! Totally not shy at all! Happily he was holding on to the bread, then wondering why mummy was feeding it to the swans and not him, cos he stuffed some into his mouth when i was not looking! Yikes. maybe he was hungry.

When we ran out of bread, it was also time to head home. Had spent about 1 hour at the gardens and the noon sun was starting to get hot. Time for his afternoon nap too :) maybe will visit again soon..

During the same month last year

Was doing some housekeeping when i came across this video, taking around the same time last year. Boy, the Little One looks so different now!! He was only around 4 months then and still very chubby and round (or as what one PD will tell me.. obese). He couldn't crawl yet but was more interested in pulling up and wanting to walk around. He did eventually crawl at around 10 months, quite late compared to his peers and his crawling days didn't last that long cos he started walking at after his 1st birthday.

He has indeed grown :)

The Paella Weekend

This is my first attempt at cooking paella!


Joining my paella is the Big One's thai squid salad :) its super yummy and its his 2nd try. His salad recipe was courtesy of our family friend, M. M is a super cook and each time he brings back steaks, we would make a troop down to his place and really feast for the night.

Anyways, i digress.. the paella was a seafood one, with a recipe from one of my many cookbooks. Had wanted to cook on Saturday.. partially because both me and the Big One have always enjoyed cooking and also to give Sari a break from the cooking chores. Must say that my maiden attempt wasnt too bad except that the squid was a bit overdone (still trying to master the timing of how the ingredients should be added) and not all of my mussels seemed to get cooked. We polished the whole pan up! heheh.. and also gave some to my neighbour who was having a japanese stew party that night. So far no complains from them so i think it should be okie bah.

Will be cooking this saturday again :) will hunt down a new recipe to try!

Week 2 of new Job

Just a quick post before i go off to la-la-land.
Its week 2 on the new job :) so far so good! But still missing my boy at work and no, have not been plastering my walls with his photos yet.

This week Hubby is on reservist - which means he gets to act macho and use all the hokkien phrases he knows. Luckily for me, he doesn't have to stay in camp. So tonight, he was attempting to read the Little One's story book in Hokkien. talk about getting in touch with ones' culture.

New trick by the Little One.. he points to the photo frames and gets us to bring it down for him. Then he kisses the frames..Awwww.. so sweet!